One of the prevailing
storylines in Monday night's game between the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins will be the
fateful free-agent battle the teams waged seven years ago over Drew Brees.

As we all know, the Saints
recorded the first major victory of the Sean Payton era when they signed Brees
to a six-year, $60 million contract in March 2006. One could argue it was the greatest win of
Payton's career other than Super Bowl XLIV.

The Dolphins were heavily
favored to land Brees. The Saints pulled off the upset, an "Ambush" before the famous Super Bowl "Ambush" of 2009. The rest is history.

Although it appears someone would like to revise that history.

"We chose Drew
Brees," former Dolphins now Alabama coach Nick Saban told South Florida radio station
790-AM The Ticket last December. "I've never ever talked about this publicly and I
think a lot of players know this. ... We think Drew Brees was an outstanding
player. That's the guy we made the first offer to. And, quite frankly, he
didn't pass the physical with our organization, so we had to go (with Daunte Culpepper)."

Which one is it,
Nick? Sounds like you chose the docs not Drew.

Does anyone really believe Nick Saban allowed a bunch of quacks to tell him who his quarterback would be.

Brees remembers it slightly differently. In his book, "Coming Back Stronger," Brees said he and his agent, Tom Condon, believed the Dolphins were simply trying to leverage him for a cheaper deal. He
said Condon told him the battery of medical tests Miami conducted
on Brees was a negotiating tactic to lower Brees' asking price.

"Here's what's
going to happen: Miami will call tomorrow," Brees said Condon told him. "They're going to say that the
physical didn't turn out as well as they had hoped. They're going to threaten
to pull the offer. ... Not only do I know it, but I can pretty much guarantee
it."

Brees said that's
exactly what happened. The next day, Brees said Saban told him the Dolphins' medical staff believed
he had only a 25 percent chance of coming back and playing and that the
Dolphins would have to lower their initial contract offer to him.

"I do believe I
was their first choice," Brees said in a conference call with South Florida
reporters Thursday. "But, at the end of the day, I felt like New
Orleans was the best fit for me for a lot of reasons, not just football. I know
that (the Dolphins) ran me through a whole round of physicals and evaluations
and all kinds of stuff when I was there, which was not a good experience
obviously, but I understood. They were going to put a big investment in me, so
(the Dolphins) wanted to be sure."

Dolphins owner
Wayne Huizenga later said the team's doctors believed there was a 25 percent
chance Brees would re-injure his shoulder at some point in his career.

"I do remember
(Saban) saying that their doctors felt like I had a 25 percent chance of coming
back and playing," said Brees, who had been injured in the 2005 season
finale with San Diego. "If you're going on those statistics, you make the
decisions based upon that."

To their credit,
the Saints rolled the dice. Frankly, they could afford to take a chance. They
were coming off a 3-13 season and in rebuilding mode. If Brees wasn't fully recovered until 2007, so what. Time was on their side. Expectations were low.

The Dolphins, meanwhile,
had won their final six games of 2005 to finish 9-7. They were in win-now mode.

Money also played a role. It
always does.

At the time, South Florida
media outlets reported Brees' camp had demanded $10 million in guaranteed money
in the first year of the contract. The Saints didn't blink at the price. The
Dolphins did.

In his book "Home Team," Payton said the offer Miami made to Brees "wasn't in the same ballpark as
ours."

Brees, however,
said "the money was almost identical from
both teams" in his book, "Coming Back Stronger."

The exact value of
Miami's offer to Brees is unknown but it's notable that
Culpepper's deal was significantly less than the one Brees eventually signed in
New Orleans. The Dolphins paid Culpepper $2 million in Year 1, $5.5 million in
Year 2 and $6 million in Year 3. The Saints paid Brees $10 million in his first
year and included a $12 million roster bonus in Year 2.

"We can sit back
and kind of chuckle about it now," Brees said Thursday. "There's no hard
feelings and you know what, everything happened the way it was supposed to. So
I don't think about it for a second. I really don't. Obviously, coach Saban has
gone on and probably would not trade his career path for anything either."

Maybe so. But Saban's legacy
as an NFL coach will forever be tainted by his fateful decision in March 2006.

Since then, the Dolphins have
started 10 different quarterbacks, gone 48-67 and failed to win a playoff game.

The Saints, meanwhile, have
gone 72-43, won the first Super Bowl in club history and seen Brees start every
game except the meaningless 2009 season finale.